Archive for the ‘$10 decorating projects’ Category

As soon as the temperature dropped last week I was immediately ready to cozy up with some creepy decorations. I’m sure you guys were the same. What fun are shorter evenings without the fall candles and spooky accents, right?!

This year it’s been especially fun because the twins (now 2 1/2) have been more aware of everything, and really enjoyed looking though my Rubbermaids that are jam packed with orange and black. They kept saying “play with creepy toys…now?!”, it was all giggles until my talking skeleton head appeared…then the frightful tears came, such fun!

Although holiday bins are always fun to go through, I like new add little something new every year…

I found the bat garland at the Dollar Spot at Target, priced at $3. It originally hung on black ribbon, but I re-stung it on baker’s twine and managed to make two garlands instead of one to hang on both sides of the molding in the dinning room.

So simple, and effective!

On our latest trip to Ikea, the girlies fell in love with these kitty pillows (see HERE), and used them as pillows in their carts while I browsed the rest of the store. At only $3.99 each I thought they were a really fun modern addition to our Halloween nook!

The other cushion covers I already had and such a steel at only $5 (link HERE).

It always surprises me how easy it is to add a little festivity. Just a few bucks and a few minutes can really spruce up the season and make these long evenings more doable!

After spending hours painting stars in our nursery, I now consider myself an expert ;)

If you are interested in painting stars in your home this is how and what I learned…

First I measured the wall space: 8′ H x 10′ W meaning I could have four rows of five stars measuring 2′ each.

I really wanted my starts to touch tip to tip so I had to create my own stencil to get my stars exactly 24″. Needless to say my high school geometry teacher would not have been proud! I had to try a few times to get the exact dimensions I wanted.

I used THIS tutorial on wikihow to get me started and decided to adapt the protractor method to make a huge star. Instead of drawing a circle and connection the points, I drew a vertical line and drew 5 lines measuring 72 degrees apart using a protractor and ruler which would be the points of the star. I then a measured 12″ from the center in each direction to make the lines of the star making sure the diameter was 24″.

Once I had my stencil I measured horizontal lines 24″ apart on my wall space using a level and a ruler. I lined up my star stencil on each horizontal line and drew 20 stars in about 5 minutes. Wahoo, something easy!

I decided to tape off the stars so they would be extra crisp and clean with painter’s tape. If you have a steady hand you could just paint free hand.

I chose Benjamin Moore’s Ozark Shadows HERE for a warm grey that is on the taupe side. I painted two coats on my first row, and couldn’t wait for it to dry to peel off the painter’s tape and see the result. Uh oh, major paint bleed! I gave Jones Paint and Glass a quick call and they advised me to seal the tape before painting with a damp cloth to really lock the tape against the wall. Once I did this I had zero problems with the paint bleeding. I used both blue and green frog tape for this project because I had left over tape from other projects, but definitely preferred the green tape for a super crisp edge.

Paint bleeds and stencil problems aside, I now have (almost) perfect stars!

Sarah has been wanting signs on her doors for a really long time and has been on the hunt at all of our favorite stores.
Of course she came up with the cutest DIY signs to make herself, that took no time at all and only cost a few dollars each!

She found these little plaques at Hobby Lobby.

They cost $2.99 for a 4-pack.

She gave each plaque two coats of chalkboard paint (any brand will work).

Wow, we can’t believe it’s Wednesday already. First off, we are so sorry for slacking on the blog posts lately. The New Year had us all gung ho, and then the cold-that-never-ends hit both our households…ugh. Not to mention; we were both little too enthusiastic on the organizing front, pulled out rooms and turned our houses upside down. That was two weeks ago and we’re still trying to pick up steam to finish. Eeek!

When all else fails, a small creative project aways boosts our moods and one afternoon Sarah grabbed her paint brush and gave a wreath a white-wash.

It’s she lovely?!

Before the makeover it looked like this. Nice, but not wow.

White paint never disappoints.

Now we’re wondering what else can we give a little white magic to?

ps. if you ever find you’re missing us here, you can always find us on instagram! (follow us HERE)